“The police investigation is still active and no one should be under the belief that this case is stalled,” said assistant Bexar County District Attorney Cliff Herberg.

The charge was dropped — but could be reprised — pending the completion of additional forensic testing and further police investigation, Herberg said Tuesday.

Early on, DNA evidence led police to Flores, who according to her friends had known Herrera for about a year. Cell phone records indicated the couple was in touch more than 30 times the night that she died.

Saliva and other DNA left on a beer can in her kitchen, along with hairs and fibers and a bloody shoeprint also linked Flores to the killing, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Flores “remains a suspect, even if the charge was dropped. The case is still being actively investigated and we are awaiting certain test results” before determining how to proceed, Herberg said Tuesday.

Neither Flores, who in 2003 was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, nor his lawyer responded to calls seeking comment.

Herrera, 30, whom her family called Emmy, and her cat, Cowboy, were found dead on March 2 inside her burned-out residence at the Mitchell Village apartments on the Southwest Side.

She'd lived in her small, second-floor apartment for two years, her family said.

The Bexar County medical examiner determined she died of asphyxiation by strangulation with blunt force injuries to the head. Firefighters found her tied to her bed. Investigators believe the killer set fire to the apartment after she was dead, hoping to eliminate clues or evidence.

Flores was arrested and charged with murder on April 27, less than two months after Herrera's death, and released on May 26, according to Bexar County Jail records.

Relatives have said Herrera was a psychology graduate of San Antonio's Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus who lived alone but was in constant touch with her family.

They said she had dinner nearly every day at her parents' home and made it a point to frequently text or phone her mother.

The 2003 case, in which Flores was granted deferred adjudication, was closed two days before Herrera's death, according to Bexar County court records.